AABA Altaba Inc

By Anne Steele and Ryan Knutson 

Verizon Communications Inc. posted another decline in revenue amid a continued drop-off in subscriber additions as a pricing war continues to drag on the wireless provider's results.

It was the third consecutive quarterly sales decline after six years of growth. On Tuesday, executives said they expected revenue and profit this year to be little changed from 2016.

Verizon, which has been chasing revenue growth through acquisitions, in July said it would buy Yahoo Inc.'s Web assets for $4.83 billion in cash, ending a drawn-out process for the beleaguered internet company. For New York-based Verizon, the deal adds another piece to the digital media and advertising empire it is trying to build.

But on Monday Yahoo said the deal will close a quarter later than expected, as both sides grapple with the fallout of two massive data breaches disclosed last year by the internet company. Yahoo reported results for the last three months of 2016, and included charts showing only a slight dip in the level of page views, searches and email activity before and after its second hacking disclosure.

In an interview Tuesday, Verizon finance chief Matt Ellis said "they show a trend that there wasn't a massive reduction" in user engagement, but the carrier was still waiting for more data before making a final decision about how to proceed with the deal.

"They've run a good process, it's been thorough," Mr. Ellis said of Yahoo's efforts.

Mr. Ellis, who recently took over for Fran Shammo, who retired, said the Yahoo deal still made sense. "There is tremendous value in adding their user base to the assets we already have."

During the December period, Verizon said it added 591,000 net retail postpaid wireless subscribers, a 61% drop from the prior-year period. Postpaid churn, or the rate at which customers canceled service, rose 14 basis points to 1.10% from a year earlier.

Last summer, Verizon rolled out new pricing plans that allow customers to rollover unused data and avoid overage fees, but unlike rivals it has no plans to bring back unlimited data plans.

"Unlimited is one of the things that some of our competition has at this point in time and it's not something we feel the need to do," Mr. Ellis said on a conference call Tuesday. To address competition, Verizon recently introduced a $50 monthly plan that includes 5 gigabytes of data.

For the latest quarter, revenue slipped 5.6% to $32.34 billion, hurt by divestments as well as declines both in the wireless and wireline operations. Verizon posted a profit of $4.5 billion, or $1.10 a share, down from $5.39 billion, or $1.32 a share, a year earlier.

Verizon's Fios TV and high-speed internet business, which had been lagging, continued to recover. Verizon added a net 68,000 internet customers in the quarter and gained 21,000 video customers.

Verizon also said it was cutting 155 jobs in its go90 mobile video app, as part of an effort to consolidate offices in Los Angeles, San Jose and New York. The company said the restructuring was the result of acquisitions, including video startup Vessel in October, that caused duplication and wasn't a change in strategy.

The app, launched in October 2015, is designed to attract millennial customers with short video clips. Verizon hasn't disclosed how many customers have downloaded the app but says those that do use it watch about 30 minutes a day.

Write to Anne Steele at Anne.Steele@wsj.com and Ryan Knutson at ryan.knutson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 24, 2017 12:30 ET (17:30 GMT)

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